A week before we break for the 83rd All-Star Game in Kansas City, which team is the best? Is it the two-time AL champion Rangers? Or do the Yankees, Nationals or Angels have a rightful claim?

Expected contenders like the Tigers and Angels are digging out of early holes, while surprise teams, including the Mets, Nationals, White Sox and others, have made their contentions known during the season's first half.

While discussions will pick up in intensity in the weeks leading up to the July 31 non-waiver Trade Deadline, it will be interesting to see if postseason expansion and some new collective bargaining twists affect the wheeling and dealing.

Each day, MLB.com selects one player from each game whose performance stands out.

For the first time in a week, the Dodgers put up enough runs to celebrate a victory. Aided by three Mets errors and a gutsy seven-inning effort from ace Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles snagged an 8-3 win on Sunday night to end a seven-game losing streak.

On Tuesday, the White Sox will start their second straight series against a first-place team, but they'll do so with little momentum, having dropped the last two games of their set with the the American League East-leading Yankees. Chicago will turn to Chris Sale to turn things around in the first of three with the Rangers, who sit atop the AL West.

Jarrod Parker isn't a household name yet, but that may soon change. Parker will take the mound for the A's on Monday in the team's series opener against the Red Sox, hoping to help Oakland forget about a rough weekend in Texas.

The Phillies are trying to decide whether to play or fold. The Mets are playing with house money.

Perhaps overlooked on a fairly young A's pitching staff, 29-year-old Travis Blackley is proving himself to be just as noteworthy of attention after leading Oakland to a 3-1 victory Sunday.

Yu Darvish gave up three runs on five hits in seven innings with 11 strikeouts, but Travis Blackley limited the Rangers to one run over seven innings as the Rangers fell to the A's, 3-1, at the Ballpark in Arlington on Sunday.

The last time Kansas City hosted an All-Star Game, FanFests, the Home Run Derby and the Futures Game were still many years away in 1973.

Reds first baseman Joey Votto exited the game Saturday against the Giants as a precautionary measure in the fifth inning due to inflammation in his left knee. But the Reds may not need Votto's bat Monday as they take on a Dodgers squad that has struggled mightily the last two weeks.

Over the next two months, the Blue Jays Baseball Academy will host instructional baseball camps in all ten Canadian provinces. The camps will focus on growing the game of baseball nationally, while partnering with Baseball Canada, Little League Canada, and Honda Canada.

Hours after learning that he had set a National League record with 7.6 million votes in All-Star Game voting, Buster Posey scored the game-winning run in the bottom of the ninth on Angel Pagan's double to give the Giants a 4-3 victory over the Reds on Sunday.

On average, nobody in baseball has hit longer home runs this season than bruising Angels slugger Mark Trumbo. On July 9, he'll get a chance to show that off at the State Farm Home Run Derby.

For only the second time this season, Reds first baseman Joey Votto was not in the starting lineup Sunday when his team played its series finale vs. the Giants.

It was a boost from a backup and then some bolstering by the bullpen that provided the Cardinals with the necessary margin in a 5-4 win over the Pirates on Sunday.